2013 Builder of the Year - Multigenerational Design
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Multigenerational Design Versatile House Plans
Page 38 Page 56
www.ProBuilder.com
December 2013 Powered by HousingZone.com
2013
Builder of
the Year
How David Weekley Homes emerged from the
downturn more dynamic and profitable than ever
PHOTO: REEVES & KANG/DBPHOTOAGENCY
David Weekley (left), founder and chairman
of David Weekley Homes, with John Johnson,
the company’s president and CEO
2012 JESSE H. NEAL
AWARD WINNER
[multigEnErational]
The MulTiplier
maracay Homes offers the generation Suite in the Saguaro plan
at lumiere garden at Eastmark in mesa, ariz. the suite includes a
combined living room/bedroom, a full bath, and a walk-in closet.
a kitchenette and stacked washer/dryer are additional options.
the 4,152-square-foot home starts at $379,000.
By Susan Bady, Senior Contributing Editor
n 2011, with the housing market still in a slump, Lennar Jeff Roos, the Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based president of Lennar’s
Corp. introduced its NextGen line of homes to multigen- West Region, is confident that NextGen will pick up steam
erational buyers in Arizona, California, and Nevada. Over as Americans continue to double up. “We’ve created a home
the next two years, Lennar expanded the NextGen brand within a home,” says Roos.
to 130 communities across the United States and in such The concept isn’t rocket science, but it works. There’s a
diverse markets as Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, lock-off suite—a separate kitchenette, bedroom, and bath-
and Texas. To date, Lennar has sold 1,100 NextGen homes. room in the main house—with its own entrance, giving the
Granted, 850 of those sales happened in the West. But occupants privacy and autonomy but not isolating them
38 Professional Builder December 2013
Demand for
multigenerational housing design
shows no signs of
abating. Builders in the
West were first out of the
effecT
gate with targeted designs,
but the rest of the
country is catching up.
PHOTOS: MARACAY HOMES
The Ironwood plan at Montelena, a Maracay
Homes community in Queen Creek, Ariz.,
has an optional Generation Suite with a
from the rest of the family.
separate living room and bedroom and a
Prior to World War II, multigenerational households were
private entrance from the courtyard. The
commonplace in America. Many Baby Boomers remember
3,844-square-foot home starts at $390,000.
growing up under the same roof with mom, dad, grandma,
grandpa, siblings, and sometimes uncles, aunts, and cousins.
Fond memories aside, with everyone living in close proximity
there was bound to be some tension.
“Certainly we love our family and friends, but after a while
[MULTIGENERATIONAL]
PHOTO: CHRIS MAYER
NEXTGEN BY THE NUMBERS it gets a little bit old,” Roos says. Concepts like NextGen are
an opportunity for extended households to have the best of
Most single-family homes built for multigen- both worlds.
erational living aren’t that much bigger than According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 5.1
their conventional counterparts. They’re just million Americans (or 16.7 percent of the population) live in
configured differently (and often more ef- a house with at least two adult generations, or a grandpar-
ficiently). “We just kind of rearranged the ent and at least one other generation. There are three demo-
rooms a little bit,” says Jeff Roos about Lennar graphic drivers of this trend:
Corp.’s NextGen homes. • Boomers who would normally be downsizing at this stage
Roos, president of Lennar’s West Region, of their lives are trading up. They’re sometimes referred
says there are some additional costs involved to as The Sandwich Generation because they still have
with NextGen, such as the kitchenette and the children living at home as well as elderly parents. For
external entrance in the lock-off suite; there- economic as well as other reasons, many Boomers won’t
fore, the homes sell for roughly 10 percent put their aging parents in an assisted-living facility or
more than comparably sized homes lacking nursing home.
the lock-off suite. For example, a 2,500-square- • The recession triggered a wave of boomerang kids (some-
foot NextGen home might sell for $275,000, times with kids of their own) moving back in with their
while a conventional 2,500-square-foot home parents because they’re unable to support themselves.
might sell for $250,000. • The surge in immigration that started around 1970 was
“Take that $25,000 premium and break it dominated by Latin Americans and Asians, who are much
down on a typical mortgage, and let’s say the more inclined than native-born Americans to live in mul-
monthly mortgage payment for the NextGen tigenerational households.
home is $120 more,” Roos says. “If you com-
pare that to the rent for a separate apartment MORE THAN A FIRST-FLOOR MASTER
or a nursing home or assisted-living facility, [the Master-down plans have been around for years, but lock-
NextGen] home is a huge benefit.” off suites, like the ones in the NextGen homes, are on the
design
Image left: The New Home Co.’s newest community, Villa Metro in Santa Clarita, Calif., includes plans with guest suites
that are ideal for multigenerational households as well as family members who visit for extended periods of time. The
suite in Terra Plan 2 has a kitchenette and sitting/dining area. Villa Metro homes are priced in the $400,000s.
Plan below: The upstairs master suite and downstairs bedroom suite of Plan 2 at Terra, a 1,605-square-foot home,
make the house suitable for both multigenerational households and roommates who buy a home together.
ILLUSTRATION: THE NEW HOME COMPANY/ROBERT HIDEY ARCHITECTS
cutting edge of design. the Terra Plan 2. “At a relatively small 1,605 square feet, it’s
The New Home Company (TNHC), based in Aliso Viejo, rare to find this type of setup in a single-family home that
Calif., opened Lambert Ranch in Irvine, Calif., in April 2012. enables multigenerational living,” she says. The home has a
In just over a year, TNHC sold all 169 homes, priced from separate living suite, kitchenette, and bathroom on the first
the $900,000s to $1.5 million. The community consists of floor and a full bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and great room
single-family detached homes ranging from 2,730 to 4,876 on the second floor.
square feet. Irvine-based Robert Hidey Architects designed Sherman Jones, project director for Robert Hidey Architects,
three different floor-plan options for extended families: points out the home was also designed with the idea of dual
800-square-foot, detached guest houses; living suites with ownership in mind—one on the lower floor and one upstairs.
kitchenettes and separate entrances; and compound-like es- “The city won’t allow a full kitchen on the lower floor, but
tates with shared courtyards. you can include some components and call it a kitchenette,”
TNHC currently offers multigenerational designs at Villa Jones says.
Metro in Santa Clarita, Calif., also designed by Hidey. The de- When completed, Villa Metro will consist of 315 homes.
tached homes at Villa Metro are considerably smaller than Since the grand opening in August, 37 homes have been sold.
at Lambert Ranch—1,200 to 2,000 square feet—and priced in
the $400,000s. “It’s a completely different kind of community The GeneraTion SuiTe
[because] we saw a need with a different demographic,” says After spending 18 months and more than $4 million rede-
Joan Marcus-Colvin, senior vice president of sales, market- signing its existing portfolio and creating new designs, Maracay
ing, and design for TNHC. Homes of Scottsdale, Ariz., launched the New Arizona Living
Villa Metro buyers are predominantly young families, says Collection in late 2011 “to address the unique needs, prefer-
Marcus-Colvin. Between 10 and 20 percent are multigenera- ences, and lifestyles of the post-recession Arizona home buy-
tional—grandparents living with their adult children and er,” says Gina Canzonetta, marketing manager.
grandchildren; siblings buying a home together; and families One concept to come out of a 10-day charrette with BSB
with children who have graduated from college and moved Design, Des Moines, Iowa, and D33 Design & Planning, San
back in with their parents. Juan Capistrano, Calif., was the Generation Suite. This plan in-
The most popular plan with multigenerational buyers is cludes a living room, bedroom, full bath, kitchenette, washer
www.ProBuilder.com Professional Builder 41
[multigenerational]
PHotograPHY, inC.
PHoto: eriC Figge
What ReseaRch Reveals and dryer, and, in some plans, a one-car garage and a sepa-
rate entrance. The suite was designed to fit within the main
the New home company (tNhc) of Irvine, ca- structure of the home, typically as part of a three-car garage.
lif., constantly surveys its customers—past, cur- Canzonetta says the Generation Suite is one of the more
rent, and future. “as the economy changes and popular options in Maracay’s FlexDesign program, which allows
we see if this multigenerational notion is here buyers to customize homes to their individual needs. “You can
to stay or not, we have to be pretty nimble,” rearrange rooms or add different components,” she says. “It’s a
says Joan Marcus-colvin, senior vice president little bit more complex than just changing a den to a bedroom.”
of sales, marketing, and design. She has seen demand for the suites increase steadily since
In a recent focus group, Marcus-colvin spoke the new floor plans were introduced. “The homes aren’t sig-
with residents of lambert Ranch who had been nificantly larger; they average between 2,500 and 3,100 square
in their homes for a year. “lambert homeown- feet, whereas throughout the Phoenix area the average size
ers all have parents and siblings that visit and is about 2,600 square feet. Our base prices run from the low
stay for extended periods of time,” she says. $200,000s to the high $300,000s.”
“they said that the older generation prefers
to stay in the main house [as opposed to a Generations pool their resources
detached guest house]. In the asian culture, Jon Girod estimates he has been building homes for multi-
particularly, where age comes with honor, you generational buyers for the last 10 years. “Our primary mar-
abide by that generation’s wishes.” ket is empty nesters, so they’re looking at things like accesso-
conversely, couples with children in college ry dwelling units, granny flats, and dual masters,” says Girod,
find that the guest house is more suitable for the owner of Quail Homes in Vancouver, Wash. “Families will pool
kids when they’re home for holidays or breaks. money together and instead of buying two houses, they might
tNhc will soon introduce first-floor living buy one with a granny flat.”
suites with direct access to one-car garages, Dual living, as he calls it, “is a very interesting dynamic. Part
to give the owner a greater feeling of secu- of it is cultural; some ethnic groups have always cared for their
rity. “We hope to build those plans in 2014,” elderly because they don’t believe in the nursing-home model.”
Marcus-colvin says. But all kinds of American families are now bringing parents
design
Far left: Plan 3 is the best-selling plan at La
Cresta at Woodbury in Irvine, Calif., a Brookfield
Homes community. The 4,098-square-foot-
home starts at $1.5 million and includes a guest
suite with a separate entrance. Left: The guest
suite of Plan 3 at La Cresta at Woodbury is well
appointed with a 14-by-12-foot bedroom, a
dining area, full bath, kitchenette, and private
outdoor patio.
DANIELIAN ASSOCIATES
ILLUSTRATION:
into their homes, largely because outside care is so expensive. the rest of the house without going outside,” says architect
Girod, who builds in the Portland, Ore., metro area, says Dale Patton of Danielian Associates, in Irvine. “The interior
approximately 60 to 70 percent of his homes are based on connection is still important.”
plans by Alan Mascord Design Associates. Of the 40 homes Although the suite is available with a kitchenette, sales as-
he built last year, Girod says at least a third were purchased sociate Andrea Martinez says not many buyers have selected
by multigenerational buyers. that feature. “Many Asians believe their parents would be in-
Two plans that have been especially popular are the Vidabelo, sulted by the suggestion that they should cook and eat sepa-
a 3,084-square-foot home with two master suites, and the rately from the rest of the family,” says Martinez.
Harriet, a 2,890-square-foot home that has a bedroom suite
separated from the main house by the garage. floor plAn trumps locAtion
Jeff Roos estimates that about 80 percent of Lennar’s NextGen
Designing for the AsiAn mArket homes are selling primarily because the floor plans are unique.
A bedroom on the first floor is one thing; a true living suite “I hear stories about people buying a home in one of our
is even better. With this in mind, Brookfield Homes created communities even though it might not be their No. 1 loca-
homes in Irvine, Calif., specifically for Asian buyers, who have tion,” Roos says. “People who may never have considered liv-
always embraced multigenerational living. ing together are realizing they can share the mortgage and
La Cresta’s two-story detached homes range from 3,622 to other expenses.”
4,098 square feet and start at $1.5 million. Brookfield has sold 24 Lennar’s NextGen plans currently number more than 60.
of 50 homes to date and is already racking up industry accolades. The one- and two-story designs fit on a variety of home sites.
“We knew that this market was predominantly families The lock-off suites also vary in size and include studio, one-,
with young children and that they were going to have their and two-bedroom plans. Roos says the two-bedroom is ideal
parents come and stay for a certain period of time,” says for a single parent with a child. Other buyers like having a
Carina Hathaway, vice president of sales and marketing for place where visiting relatives can stay for extended periods.
Brookfield in Costa Mesa, Calif. “We wanted to make [the In short, don’t expect the multigenerational trend to die
downstairs living suites] respectful and comfortable.” down any time soon. “It’s the new normal,” says Maracay’s
Plan 3 at La Cresta has a guest suite at the front of the Gina Canzonetta. “It will become more [common] as we
house with its own entry courtyard. “You still have access to move forward.” PB
www.ProBuilder.com Professional Builder 43
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